Case Story: Creating Podcasts In Higher Education

Summary	Practical tips for creating podcasts especially in a higher education setting, includes some basic guidelines based on the user experience.
Group / workshop	ALiC	Status	seed
Project details...

Situation

What was the setting in which this case study occurred?

A number of trials have taken place within Innovation North Faculty of Information and Technology including the development of learning materials and support mechanisms for academic staff wishing to develop new (or adapt existing) resources to this new format.  To date, podcasts have been created to support the teaching of motion capture, advanced video technologies, and project-based work for computing students. CETL ALiC (Active Learning in Computing) is supporting the trials through the development of a Podcast Solutions Pilot which has allowed us to observe, support, develop and explore some of the issues around using this type of technology in a teaching and learning environment.

Task

What was the problem to be solved, or the intended effect?

Students are increasingly involved in work-based and practical learning activities rather than traditional classroom-based taught classes. As the face and pace of technology continues to change, there is a growing need to consider teaching and learning practices that make the best and most effective use of mobile technologies. Not only do we need to consider the needs of students, it is important to remember
that teaching staff also often have learning needs as they attempt to produce new, or revise existing, learning materials that are suitable for mobile technologies.

In this case-study, we explored the user experience from a staff perspective. We wanted to find out how familiar the staff were with podcasting and mobile technologies and what kinds of objects they wished to create.

Actions

What was done to fulfil the task?

Two staff groups were formed – one to look at technical issues and one to support users
in developing podcasts.

Staff were encouraged to be creative and were not given a brief to construct their
podcasts.

Ipods were issued to 20 staff in the user groups to experiment with.

Various pieces of equipment were purchased to support the development of materials
(mini-DV camera, Apple Mac Mini, editing software).

Participants completed a questionnaire which asked about their own experience of using
the mobile devices; whether they had produced podcasts; any student feedback, and so
on.

Results

What happened? Was is a success? What contributed to the outcomes?

A range of podcasts has been created and made available to students via the
university website and the university’s virtual learning environment, Xstream
(Blackboard Vista). A bank of podcasts that convert existing resources, such as video
and audio content, lecture notes and other teaching materials, is currently being
developed.

Some publicly available podcasts can be found here:

• Carnegie Sports e-Newsletter (2008)

http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/carnegie/sport

• Metcast (2007), Leeds Metropolitan University
  http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/metcast/
• ‘Sounds good’ Audio Feedback project (2008)

http://www.soundsgood.org.uk/
The variety of projects conducted during the Podcast Solutions Pilot has provided
valuable insights into the development of podcasts and some of the issues this brings
in a Higher Education teaching and learning environment.

Lessons Learned

What did you learn from the experience?

Tip 1: Short and Simple

* Keep it short. On average, people tend to actively listen to content for about ten minutes. Live lecture podcasts can be useful for revision or for distance learners, but effective content delivery should use “bite-size” chunks. A podcast specifically explaining a particular programming construct, for example, will be more effective than a recorded lecture.

* Keep it simple. Complex software demonstrations or screen captures do not transfer easily to the small screen display of most mobile devices. If you are going to use podcasts for screencasts, make sure you use the zoom-in feature when recording.

Tip 2: Message not Medium
* Quality of presentation matters less than the quality of the message. Staff do not have to be media wizards to podcast. Take account of the persistence of a resource when deciding how much effort to dedicate to production.

* Offer content in a variety of download formats so students have the option to view it in a web browser and download later for their own device. Do not overlook audio only files.

Tip 3: Support and Resources

* Don’t over- or under- estimate the skills of staff. Even the most technical computing person might need support in adapting materials for mobile technologies and getting to know the devices.

* Offer support and resources to staff who would like to convert existing paper and electronic versions of learning materials into podcast format.

Licensing

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.